How Sam & Jack Got Engaged
by Majikthize
Summary: Jack and Sam plus a cabin and a proposal. Pure, utter, shameless fluff and since it's me and I'm incapable of not going there, there's a little bit of angst and gutter in there too . Spoilers for Continuum and Atlantis S5 Search & Rescue.


Author's Notes: This is set immediately after Sam returns from Atlantis, except the bit in italics which is a flashback to immediately before she went to Atlantis. I kind of hope that's obvious (if it isn't, I'm not a terribly good writer after all!)

Please leave feedback. All will be read, acknowledged and replied to.

Happy Valenship to everyone on the Gateworld Forums, espcially the Sam/Jack shipper family ((((family)))).

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The cabin was musty. It had been shut up far too long and there was a strange smell of decay and neglect around it. Even though Jack had handed the keys over the General Landry to use and abuse it was clear even he hadn't been up here for far too long.

"We're going to have to air it out a bit." Sam said wrinkling her nose and the pungent aroma hit her.

"Oh just prop the door and a couple of windows open for a bit, it'll be fresh as ever before long." Jack added as he headed for the kitchen area and started putting supplies in the cupboard, "Ah, think I found the source of the smell." Jack called, his head stuck in a cupboard.

Sam walked over and looked at the dessicated ball of fluff that may have once been some kind of rodent. "Ew!" she said and pinched her nose turning away.

Jack scooped the corpse off the cupboard floor with a piece of rag and strode outside and threw it in the pond. "Nice, welcome home." He muttered to himself.

When he walked back in Sam was continuing the unpacking. "I'll fire up the heat." He motioned behind him and went back out the back to find some wood.

Sam absently started loading up the cupboards as her mind wandered. The last few days had been…well, interesting to say the least. She shook her head. This time last week she was in command of an ancient city in another galaxy, she'd come home for an IOA review and Ba'al's extraction ceremony and someone had tilted the universe forty five degrees while she was still en-route. She had to check just to make sure she'd not stepped into some kind of alternate reality where the alternate version of her had done a piss-poor job of commanding Atlantis and not the excellent one she knew she'd done. But no; it was just the IOA being short sighted idiots again. Nothing new there and definitely her very own reality.

Now here she was, up at Jack's cabin with him - alone - with no likelihood of any interruptions for at least twenty four hours and no idea where her future or her career lay beyond a general idea that the Air Force were spitting feathers at the whole Atlantis thing and bending over backwards to keep her from telling them to shove it right now. Not that she would; she was a career officer through and through. On the plus side being told you could more or less chose your next assignment did somewhat soften the blow – not to mention give your ego a massive boost. But for now she had absolutely no idea what she wanted to do and nothing planned beyond two days of fishing and… whatever else they filled their time with. It was completely new to her. Not the relaxing; Jack had taught her how to turn off, kick back and just be a long time ago, but the not knowing where her professional life was headed? That was new. In truth, she had bigger, more personal, concerns at this particular moment. She'd been back on Earth three days; one of them being bored pantsless watching Ba'al's demise (although seeing him actually writhing to his death had been somewhat satisfying, if only for the minute sigh of relief she'd heard Jack make – the only outward sign he'd ever made how much he despised that particular Goa'uld). The other two days had been one meeting after another, debriefings and paperwork and reports and people, well, sucking up and saying what a great Air Force officer she really was. These days, she didn't need other people's approval or affirmation to know she was good at her job. In all, the thrill of actually being back home again was somewhat tarnished by the fact she'd barely had time to say hi to the man she'd missed so much, much less any quality time together. Alone.

"There's beer in the trunk." Jack's voice broke into her thoughts. She walked out and popped the trunk and…well, he wasn't kidding. If this little haul was anything to go by the only other thing she'd be doing over the next day or two was nursing a hangover the size of Minnesota itself. She smiled to herself. She was going to personally see that they made a sizeable dent in this supply before the rest of the gang showed up some time tomorrow.

-

LATER

-

They sat on the couch like bookends watching the logs in the wood burner crackle and burn. Sam stood up and reached for the poker again.

"Hey, stop it!" Jack called, cracking his eyes open for a minute. "I told ya. If you keep poking them they'll just burn out faster."

"Sorry." Sam said and settled back on her end of the couch shifting slightly in discomfort that went so far beyond the physical.

The truth was, she was just a little nervous. She knew why of course, even if it seemed utterly stupid to be nervous of the man she... well, face it, they had been lovers for going on three years and had a unique and intimate working relationship for year before that so there was precious little in the way of secrets between them. After all that had been said before she left for Atlantis, it was positively laughable to be nervous of him but then, it wasn't the man she was nervous (or possibly afraid) of; it was the words he might (or rather might not) utter. This was the first time they'd actually been alone together, just the two of them, nobody else, for any decent length of time, since she got home. They only had one night. Tomorrow Daniel and Teal'c would arrive and maybe Cam and Vala too if they decided to come and God knew where they were all supposed to sleep and what possessed Jack to extend the invite to all of them but then he had and so it would officially be a party of sorts and privacy would be non-existent and any chance she had to bring the subject up would be lost. She didn't want to not talk about it and, she sensed Jack too was anticipating that particular talk. Just because they'd not talked about it and carried on like it wasn't hanging over them for the last few days while on duty and at the SGC, didn't mean she didn't know it was out there waiting to rear its head.

She risked a side-wards glance at Jack who looked incredibly relaxed and for all intents and purposes asleep; a fact belied when he raised his bottle to his lips and took a gulp of his beer. Sam looked away quickly before he noticed her and reached for her own beer with a sigh, wondering why he didn't do it already. She'd been waiting all day.

"Y'know, you could sit still, it's making me itch." Jack drawled lazily and then opened his eyes to pierce hers.

"Sorry." Sam supplied.

Jack gazed at her; his thoughts unreadable. "C'mere." He said.

Sam smiled. "Ok." She said and scooted up the couch and sat so she could feel the heat of his thigh right next to hers. "Better?" She asked.

He opened his eyes again. "Yeah." And he gave her a brief but pure O'Neill smile and draped an arm around her back.

She felt a little prickle of tension fizzle down her spine at his casual touch, Did the man not know what he was doing to her tonight? She grinned at her thoughts and looked away before he saw the colour flush her cheeks. "So," she said, "I was wondering… exactly what you had planned for this evening? I mean, as lovely as sitting in front of the fire drinking beer and dozing is, it's pretty boring and, since you banned my laptop and any reading material..."

"Science magazines?" Jack asked, scrutinising her through half lidded eyes.

"Reading material," Sam plunged onwards, "I've literally been living in another galaxy for a year. I have a lot of catching up to do."

Jack shrugged but said nothing. She sighed, "Anyway, I was wondering what we were gonna do with the rest of the evening?"

Jack opened his eyes and looked at her again. She couldn't mistake the heat in his close scrutiny. He shook his head just the tiniest amount and replied, "What do you think?" He kept his gaze on her and he took another sip of beer.

Sam broke the contact looking away briefly before returning to his gaze, "Well, it's been a while." She sent him a leery smile and squeezed his thigh to get the point across.

"Hmm." Jack smiled back and dropped a light kiss on her temple, inhaling as he did so.

"But other than the obvious." she continued, "I…before I went to Atlantis, I, we ...well…" She trailed off as the memory came fully into her thoughts.

-

/////

-

"_I'll miss you Carter."_

"_Me too." She smiled up at him._

"_C'mere." He said and moved around his desk towards her hovering form on the other side. He reached her and enveloped her in his arms. She didn't stop him or pull back, despite her surprise at this unexpected breach of their self imposed rules of conduct. Instead she threw her arms around him too and tucked her head into his neck, breathing in his scent. She felt him sigh so deeply the shudder wracked his whole body. _

"_My flight's waiting, I gotta go. " She said, her voice muffled by his proximity._

"_Just a minute more." But he pulled her back from him anyway and the look of raw emotion in his eyes as he gazed at her was nearly enough to make her knees buckle. "I…" She started but he stopped her._

"_Shh." He put a finger to her lips and a moment later all thought of what she was going to say fled from her coherent mind as he followed his finger with his own lips. _

_She returned the kiss with enthusiasm. _

_His hand travelled up her back and settled on the back of her neck,, his thumb curling round to cradle her cheek and her lips parted as their kiss deepened. Her own hands flew to his neck, pulling him closer and tighter and caressing his skin and coarse short hair. She knew if they'd only had time or been somewhere less…well, his office both of them in full dress blues and a clock ticking away the minutes until a plane whisked her to another state and, then a wormhole whisked her away to another galaxy - it was hardly the environmental conditions that encouraged any kind of follow through on that kiss but, she knew that if only… _

_His phone started ringing and it broke the spell. He groaned with frustration as she pulled away and gave him a sad smile. He picked up the receiver barked "Not now" into it, put it straight down again and made to reach for her again. _

_She put a hand on his chest "I gotta go. I really wish I didn't, but…" She shrugged and he reluctantly loosened her from his arms._

_He regained his composure but his gaze was soft and more tender than she ever remembered seeing it before. "Take care. I mean. Really. Take care. That's an order." He smiled ruefully, knowing he couldn't really order her around anymore._

"_Yes Sir." She promised and turned for the door, not daring to risk a backwards glance in case he saw the brightness in her eyes. _

"_Sam." She stalled at the door at the use of her first name. After all this time he still called her Carter more often than not so she knew he'd done it deliberately to get her attention. _

"_Jack?" She enquired, ignoring the catch in her voice and not trusting herself to turn around._

"_When this gig of yours is up; you, me, a cabin in the woods and there'll be absolutely no fishing involved." He grinned._

"_Sounds perfect."She looked at him then; a short, sad smile before turning once again to the door._

"_And Carter?" He called her back again making her look at him again._

_She rolled her eyes and glanced at her watch in mock annoyance, "Yes?"_

"_When we're up there, I am going to give you a ring." He stated simply then frowned and thought for a moment, "Damn, I mean the sort you wear on your finger." He added with a little wry smile. "Specifically, this finger." He added and waggled the third finger of his left hand at her to leave her in no doubt of what he meant. _

_Her eyes widened, "Oh!"_

"_Just so you know." He added. "Give you a little time to think about that. I know how you like to think. I reckon you've got, what, at least two years out there? That should be enough." He glanced down at his restless hands and seemed aware he was fumbling over his words. "Anyway, I'm kind of mentioning it now because I'm hoping it gives you a good reason to come home. Which is my deft and subtle way of say, don't go getting your ass kicked too badly, huh?" He looked up and looked into her eyes; in his own and all his love, sincerity and concern reached out to her from within._

"_You really wanna…propose?" She asked, not really believing that he meant that at all. _

"_I'd do it now if you didn't have a plane to catch." He replied with complete sincerity._

"_Really?" She smiled feeling warm all over._

"_You betcha." He added softly with a smile on his lips._

_She smiled back, all thoughts of her flight forgotten for a moment. "For the record, I'm gonna say yes straight off."_

"_Good." He said and took three long strides to her side, pulled her tightly to him and kissed her with all the passion he could. She returned it and then some. His phone began to ring again but they both ignored it._

_Eventually a soft knock on the door broke them apart. Sam screwed her eyes up, feeling suddenly like she wanted to miss that flight, call the IOA and the president and the SGC and tell them all there'd been a huge mistake and she wasn't going to Atlantis after all. But, duty, which had stood in good stead for her entire life, won over and she reluctantly pulled away. "I miss you already." She pressed her fingers to her lips and then to his._

"_Me too." He added. "Take care." And he really meant it._

_She flashed him one last smile and caught his own happy yet sad expression mirroring her own as she squeezed out the door, past the flustered and waiting aide and out of his life for who knew how long. _

-

\\\\\

-

Sam shook off the memory, aware that she probably had a stupid smile on her face by now. "There was something you want to ask, if I recall correctly." She broached the subject carefully and suddenly afraid he'd changed his mind. It had only been a year in the end, not two, but a year was a long time and she'd only been back a handful of days. Maybe things had changed more than she realised. Maybe absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder after all.

"Ah yes. That." He replied.

"So?"

"So."

"We've been here half a day already. Are you going to do it or not?"

"Do you still want me to?"

"Would I be asking if I didn't?" She thought for a moment, doubt creeping into her voice. "Do you still want to?"

"Oh yeah. But…"

"But?"

"But what if you say no?"

She turned her body so she could face him and grasped his face in her hands. "Trust me Jack, I have thought about this every day since I went away. Some days I've done nothing but think about this. I still haven't come up with a better answer than my initial response." She smiled at him in reassurance.

"So, what you're saying here is this is a risk free venture on my part?" He frowned.

"Oh if you don't get on with it, I wouldn't be too sure about that." Sam added with warning.

Jack bent his head and placed a hard kiss against her lips. "Ok then. That helps. " But he remained silently watching her.

"Jack?" She warned.

He sighed. "Ah well, y'see there's one little problem. More of a problemette really."

"What?" Sam asked with a sinking feeling.

"Well, I kinda wasn't expecting you back so soon."

"Tell me about it!" Sam interupted. "One day the damn IOA will work out if they can grasp their own asses..." She caught the slight wince on his face. "…ah, um sorry. You were saying?"

"Well, it was a little unplanned and I actually don't have an actual ring to give, so to speak." He shrugged and sent her an apologetic look. "I haven't got you one. Unless you want a curtain ring or...ah, no. Sorry. I'm a complete idiot."

Sam laughed, "No you're not. It doesn't matter. We can go shopping for one together next time we're remotely near civilisation. Or not, it really doesn't matter. I'd prefer we, ah, close the deal sooner rather than later, so to speak, so we could just skip that and go straight to the gold bands if you want."

"Oh I am so with you on that." He replied, dropping light kisses on her neck and jaw and sending tingles down her spine.

"Well, now we've sorted that out you better get on and actually ask me then."

He frowned. "I kinda thought we'd decided…"

"Oh yeah, we have, we're definitely doing this but, you still have to ask me. It's…traditional and me being an old fashioned kinda girl, I insist." She smiled hopefully at him.

He shrugged and sighed and shook his head lightly with amusement. "Well OK then." He straightened up slightly, "Sam, will you…"

"Oh no, not like that!." She exclaimed.

"What?" He frowned in confusion.

"Down on one knee mister. I've waited long enough, I want this done properly."

"God, Carter, my knees!"

"Yeah, come on, do it right." She said with absolutely no sympathy.

He sighed theatrically. "OK, if you insist." With much huffing and puffing and exaggerated wincing he lowered himself onto one knee in front of her. Taking her left hand in both of his and allowing his thumb to gently caress her third finger. He grew deadly serious for a second as he spoke, "Samantha Carter, will you marry me?"

She stifled the urge to laugh at him but straightened her face to give him a serious answer. "Try and stop me." And she reached forward and cupped his face with her free hand and pulled it towards her for a long, slow kiss. When they eventually parted the both wore the glazed expression of barely controlled passion. "That was a yes, by the way." She added, to remove all doubt.

"Good." Jack smiled smugly and then started to get up. His knees cracked painfully and he grimaced. "See what you do to me?"

"I'm worth it." She laughed.

"Oh that you are." He agreed as he pulled her up to standing in his arms and lowered his mouth first to her for a quick, almost chaste kiss and then pulled her close for a hug and nuzzled her neck with whisper soft kisses.

She moaned in reaction to his touch and reached up and cupped his face in both her hands, drawing it away from her neck to pull if back to her mouth for a long, deep, sweet kiss that held promises of their future together. "And now we've sorted that out, what say we do that other thing I've been waiting so long for?" She said sweetly.

"You betcha." His lips tugged into a smile and lead her towards the bedroom….

-

End

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End file.
